Soundwell Swimming Club

-The final regional level competition of the year was held this Sunday at the GL1 leisure centre in Gloucester. The meet consisted of  five individual races, all four 50m events and the 100 IM. With all regional qualifiers invited to compete, it promised a high level of competition.

There was a big emphasis on the process of racing within this meet and not on the final outcome, times came secondary to swimming smart. With lots of emphasis put on turn speed and under water phases all swimmers managed to achieve a goal on every swim.

Soundwell swimmers performed at an exceptional level yet again and took home two gold medals for Heather Witcombe 14yrs & Sophia Sotreiou 11/12yrs, two silver medals for Jasmine Stone 15yrs & Sam Taylor 11/12yrs and finally a Bronze medal for Jake Turner 11/12yrs.

A special mention should go out to those who have achieved their first regional medal, as this is a major achievement at a high level of competition and shows their ability over all stoke disciplines.

With the level of performance from all our swimmers within this meet, I as a coach feel very proud for the hard work and dedication that our swimmers put into every session, and long may it continue.

Jon Wills
Head Coach

"The spirit, the will to win, and the will to excel are the things that endure"- Vince Lombardi 

The weekends is over and Soundwell’s second ‘County Qualifier’ is done and dusted.

 A massive thank-you goes to the Referees, officials, coaches, chaperones and volunteers, many of whom once again gave up their entire weekend, to support the meet and for keeping everything running so smoothly. It goes without saying that without such support the meet simply would not have happened. 

Thanks also go to Gloucester City for coming to the rescue when the GL1 equipment was causing some issues with the smooth running of the meet on Saturday. However once sorted the rest of the meet ran without issue and ultimately the weekend was a great success.  

All the swimmers were a credit to their clubs and produced some excellent swimming. Everyone present over the weekend created a great atmosphere and it was pleasing to get people saying they enjoyed the meet...I certainly enjoyed it, although it did get a little chilly in the box at times. 

As mentioned above we received many compliments over the weekend on how people had enjoyed the meet so let’s hope we can keep building the support base within the club to continue staging the meet for many years to come…your help really is invaluable. 

Last but not least, apologies must go to Thomas Pooler who, due to a slight error on my behalf, was unable to compete in the 50 Free on Sunday. 

Darren

The 2nd round for our B team was over the bridge in Newport.
With great facilities and a quick pool, but unfortunately on the day a few DQ's cost us a first place finish.
A disputed disqualification on a relay take over, which we had won the race by a good 10 metres. I was stood directly behind the blocks and could clearly see the take overs and as I explained to the referee you can start to move from the blocks as long as your feet are still in contact with the block but to no avail. With only 7 points between 1st place Tornadoes of Dorset, 2nd Dawlish and us finally finishing in 3rd place position t was a very close fought gala.
An extremely harsh decision as our swimmers really showed a fantastic team spirit as it came down to the wire.
I have to mention Lucy watts who showed what it is to be a captain encouraging all especially with our younger swimmers.
Well done to everyone who took part some great racing.
Thank you to our officials for there support, Lou foster and Ashley Barnett pool side and just another day for me to be so proud of our great team  SOUNDWELL SC.

Julian Lewis

Saturday 19th September 2015
Horfield Leisure Centre

Soundwell produced some great performances at the Henleaze challenge shield this year. Swimmers produced personal best times off the back of only a few weeks of hard distance training, which leaves them in great condition for the upcoming season. Unfortunately though after a close run race throughout the whole gala Soundwell came a close second.
There was also a great turn out from parents showing their support for the whole club especially in some of the relays. A special mention should go out to the officials that helped out at the Gala as the home club showed its appreciation.
Great effort and turn out by all!

Jon Wills
Head Coach
 

Congratulations to 13 year old Ella Theobald who has qualified for the 50 metres freestyle and 15 year old Will Cole who has qualified in 11 events for the 2015 British Championships to be held at the London Aquatics Centre. Event winners will represent Great Britain at the European Junior Championships, the Youth Olympic Festival and the World Championships.

More information can be found here.

What a fantastic weekend for Soundwell Swimming club and our first ‘County Qualifier’ open meet. Congratulations and many thanks to our team for organising the meet and working extremely hard to bring this all together.

A big thank you to the Referees, officials, coaches, chaperones and volunteers, many of whom gave up their entire weekend, to support our meet and for keeping everything running so smoothly. A special thanks goes out to Claire Kerslake, ‘the voice of Soundwell’, who took on one of the most challenging roles and was a star. To put it simply, without ALL our volunteers this meet could not have gone ahead. 

The weekend again showed the commitment of our head coach by taking the lead competitors Marshall role for the weekend. However roles such as this are where we will need volunteers to take the lead in future in order for Matt to concentrate on the coaching of our children.

Many complements were received from both parents and visiting coaches saying just how much their children and swimmers had enjoyed the meet and how well run it had gone. One club was quoted as saying it was the best meeting they had attended in years..!! The atmosphere around the pool really was special and is something that was evident throughout the entire weekend.

And on to the children… All important times, PB's, trophies and speeding tickets were gained, but more than anything else the smiling faces and camaraderie really stood out. Our club is currently at an all time high and collectively WE must keep this ball rolling forward. Therefore, to get the very best for your children the club needs you.

We encourage all parents to please come forward and be part of your children's future success. Volunteers, Chaperones, Officials, Committee Members, all contributions are invaluable. A list has gone on the notice board to sign up so please come forward to help nurture and invest in your children's development.

I look forward to your support and thanks for making this weekend a success.

Success breeds success,
Julian Lewis

Congratulations to Anna Soteriou, Ella Theobald, Evie Reed, Georgia Pirret, Jedd Woodruff, Joel Williams, Ben Phelps Will Cole and Connor Laughey who represented Gloucestershire County in the Inter-County Teams on Sunday 19th October 2014.

National Squad
Will Cole - November in Loughborough & January in Coventry
Anna Soteriou - November in Reading

Talent Identification
Freya Bradley - November in Bournemouth & January in Marlborough

*Age @ 31st December

This summer Soundwell Swimming Club went to the National Championships with 14 swimmers who had qualified for the country’s premier age, youth and senior swim meet. Bethan Tomlinson, Georgia Pirret, Evie Reed, Anna Soteriou, Ben Tompson, Joe Parker, Will Cole, Sam Lewis, Joel Williams and Jedd Woodruff all qualified for individual events. Hannah Evans, Jorji Longdon, Luke Height and Connor Laughey all qualified as part of the clubs first youth relay teams. The South Gloucestershire club also assisted with the preparation of its University/College members; James Dawe, Will Harrison and Pixie Lale-Klasicki. Each swimmer did themselves and their club extremely proud and came away with some excellent swims and invaluable experience.

In the girls category, Evie Reed, 15, had a superb 100m butterfly to make her first ever semi-final and finish 9th. 16 year old Ben Thompson was back to his best to clock one of the teams fastest boys times. Ben also qualified for the 200m butterfly semi-final. Will Harrison and new recruit Pixie Lale-Klasicki both qualified for their respective finals. Will Cole who was recently selected for his first International meet in September set new personal bests and qualified for finals in several of his events. Will now ranks as one of the fastest junior boys in the country for the majority of strokes. In the 200 metres freestyle Will clocked 1.53.32 and broke his second ASA South West record.

Head Coach Matt Puddy said: “Overall, I am absolutely thrilled with the performances. This year we have doubled our number of National qualifiers and produced two National relay teams. We are without doubt one of the strongest teams in the South West and are now beginning to make an impact Nationally. As always, remember the more you put in, the more you get out.''